The Rise of Remote Work

Remote work is not just another trend, it is become the norm in most companies. According to Buffer's research on remote work, 99% of employees say that they would like to work remotely at least some of the time for the rest of their careers. Moreover, 91% of the surveyed companies said that they had always intended to support remote work.

Since 30% of companies say that all their employees are working remotely, now is the time to talk more about how we can make remote work better in the future and help your remote employees excel at their work.

Top Remote Work Challenges

There has been a lot of research done on the advantages and disadvantages of remote work. Let’s take a look into some of the most common challenges that remote employees are facing today.

1. Communication

"Remote employees are more likely to report feeling that colleagues mistreat them and leave them out. Specifically, they worry that coworkers say bad things behind their backs, make changes to projects without telling them in advance, lobby against them, and don’t fight for their priorities".

Luckily, employee communication solutions like Smarp make workplace communication with remote workers much more efficient.

2. Unplugging after work

Many managers may fear that their remote employees don’t do their jobs responsibly.

However, this is often not the case. Indeed, many remote employees struggle with unplugging after work. When a remote worker’s personal life and work are both under the same roof, it's hard to "switch off."

3. Team collaboration

It is harder to collaborate with your teammates when you rarely see them in person or don’t have the right employee communications solution in place.

Unfortunately, there are still companies that expect their employees to communicate and collaborate on projects through emails.

4. Interruptions

Interruptions can be another negative side of remote work. Interruptions such as doorbell, neighbors or just a poor internet connection can hurt remote employees’ focus and productivity.

On the other hand, some employees feel they are more productive when working from home. Working in an open space, for example, where workplace conversations are happening all the time can harm employee productivity.

5. Isolation

While some remote employees struggle with interruptions, for others isolation may be the biggest disadvantage of remote work.

It is too easy to get the habit of working from home all day, and then remain in your home for the remainder of that day and sometimes for subsequent days.

People who work in shared offices experience "watercooler" moments of interaction and even have lunch together or go for after-work drinks. Remote workers, on the other hand, often work asynchronously with their teammates and sometimes don’t even have anyone to talk to.

6. Being out of the loop

One of the main reasons for dissatisfaction among remote workers is the feeling of not being in the loop with important company news and events. Many also feel like they are missing out on important information.

Often, this results in low employee satisfaction, engagement and productivity levels. Many employees feel like they are not informed enough about their company, and this is especially true for remote and non-wired employees.

2. Encourage open and transparent communication

As seen earlier, poor and inefficient communication is one of the biggest disadvantages of remote work and one of the leading factors that create negative employee experience among remote employees.

To eliminate this challenge, employers must develop a company culture that welcomes honest and open communication in the workplace.

3. Help your employees unplug from work

Employee burnout is becoming a serious problem in the world of human resources. Organizations need to understand that 39% of employee burnout comes from work overload.

Therefore, we see more and more employers addressing issues around these topics.

As remote employees struggle to unplug from work, employers need to ensure that employees are aware of the negative consequences of overwork and burnout.

Organizations may implement new company policies that ensure normal working hours for remote workers and prevent them from experiencing burnout.

4. Ensure easy access to important information

Today, employees expect to get the right information at the right time.

Yet, according to a report on 2018 global workplace trends, there’s a major gap between the ease with which employees access data in their personal lives versus accessing valuable information from across the work organization.

As said in the same research,

"the consumer-grade technology experience employees are expecting at work is impeded by critical information being hard to access and nearly impossible to process. This is due in part to factors such as information silos, restricted permissions, and lack of centralized and updated content".

6. Choose the right communication channels

Today, it is common to see large organizations using multiple internal communication channels. Most enterprises use the combination of tools such as emails, Intranets, collaboration tools and project management solutions.

As the internal communication ecosystem is getting more complex, employers need to be careful about how they use all those various channels.

To make sure that employees—including the remote ones—don't miss out on important company information, businesses need to use a central communication platform with all the important information available at all times.

Smarp, our employee communication solution, is designed to help companies eliminate this challenge of managing their internal communication ecosystem. Smarp connects all of your communication channels into a single platform where employees can instantly access, share or comment on important updates.

7. Implement mobile-first communication solutions

It is important for employers to adapt their internal comms to their employees' habits.

Employers are now expected to provide a consumer-grade technology experience in the workplace with one-touch, mobile access to information and company updates that help employees work faster and smarter.

Its mobile-first approach enables employers to adjust to the new workplace trends and always make sure that office, remote and other non-wired employees always stay up-to-date with the important company updates.

Smarp’s user-friendliness and attractive design mimics social media news feeds that employees are already used to which significantly increases usage rates compared to emails and intranets.

Schedule an online demo today and learn how Smarp can help you better connect and engage with your remote employees!